Argues for a rethinking of sexuality as a constellation, rather than substantive identity
Western thinking on sexuality has historically affirmed not only a binary division between two sexes, each of which is defined by unique fixed attributes that delineate its essence, but also a privileging of the masculine over the feminine and heteronormative relations over alternatives. By engaging with psychoanalytic theory, phenomenology, feminist and gender theory, and the new materialisms, Gavin Rae shows how this model came under sustained and heterogeneous attack in the twentieth century. Rather than affirm one of these critical trajectories, Rae rethinks the problematic by turning to Walter Benjamin’s notion of concepts as constellations to develop an alternative model called sexuality as constellation.
Arvustused
An innovative, refreshingly nuanced interdisciplinary consideration of sexualitys philosophical chronicling. Raes Questioning Sexuality deftly weaves and delimits psychoanalytic, phenomenological, feminist, and queer approaches to entrenched notions of sexuality, brilliantly reframing sexuality as an indeterminate conceptual nexus illuminating the complexity of identity, politics, ethics, and being itself. -- Stacy Keltner, Kennesaw State University
Preface
Introduction: The Problem of Sex(uality)
Part I: Psychoanalysis and Phenomenology
1. Freud on Sexuality and the Feminine
2. Heidegger, Fundamental Ontology, and Sexuality
3. Merleau-Ponty on the Sexed Body
Part II: Feminism and (Post)structuralism
4. Beauvoir on the Question of "Woman"
5. Lacan, the Symbolic Phallus, and Sexual Difference
6. Irigaray on Sexual Difference: Jamming the Patriarchal Machine
Part II: Gender Theory and Queer Materialities
7. Butler and Performativity: Thinking Sex through Gender
8. Barad, Agential Realism, and Queer Theory
Conclusion: Sexuality as Constellation
Bibliography
Index
Gavin Rae is Associate Professor (accredited to Professor) in the Department of Logic and Theoretical Philosophy at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. His research interests lie in nineteenth and twentieth century European philosophy, where he works at the intersection of socio-political philosophy, psychoanalytic theory, ontology, and ethics. Besides over sixty published articles and book chapters, he is the author of eight monographs, the most recent of which are The Politics of Reason: A Postfoundational Approach (Edinburgh University Press, 2026), Questioning Sexuality: From Psychoanalysis to Gender Theory and Beyond (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), and Poststructuralist Agency: The Subject in Twentieth Century Theory (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). He has also co-edited six volumes, the most recent of which are Subjective Agency and Poststructuralism (Routledge, 2025with Cillian Ó Fathaigh), Philosophy across Borders (Routledge, 2025with Emma Ingala), and Historical Traces and Future Pathways of Poststructuralism: Aesthetics, Ethics, Politics (Routledge, 2021with Emma Ingala).
